Living Small and Smart: The Tiny House Movement

I live in a small house on a street of big houses. And when I say big, some of the houses on my street are 7,000 and 8,000 square feet. A big house signifies an important person, right? The governor lives in a mansion. The Archbishop of Hartford lives down the street from him in a house that's even bigger.

Maybe it's significant that in each case, the person in question doesn't have to clean the house or pay to heat it. On this show, you'll meet a group of people who have moved in the other direction. People are living in houses smaller than 200 square feet, modified dumpsters, and interlocked shipping containers, all willingly and enthusiastically. We learn how easy it can be, and what challenges are in the way for people trying to live simply.

A floor plan of the SeaUA shipping container community, built by Travis Price Associates in Washington, DC.

Credit Travis Price Associates in Washington, DC.

Hear from a woman who built in and lives in a tiny house in California, a builder who makes it all happen with free and found materials, a New Yorker who has been living in his custom-built dumpster for years, and an architecture firm currently building a stackable community of waterproof shipping containers that have been modified to provide safe, clean housing for students in Washington, D.C

What would you build? Comment below, email Colin@wnpr.org, or tweet @wnprcolin.

GUESTS:

Tammy Strobel is a writer, photographer, teacher, and runs RowdyKittens.com, where she talks about living simply in her tiny house in northern California